Current Affairs Quiz - April 2022

Notes:
The Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC is set to be admitted as the seventh member of the East African Community (EAC).
In the Extraordinary Heads of State Summit, DR Congo will be formally received in a virtual session. The DRC will gain access to the two main ports in the region-Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, also gaining trade, political and security cooperation. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda are the other members.

Notes:
India and Australia signed an Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (IndAus ECTA). It seeks to provide -duty access to 96 per cent of India’s exports to Australia.
The exports include engineering goods, gems and jewellery, textiles, apparel and leather. The pact is expected to boost bilateral trade in goods and services to USD 45-50 billion over five years and generate over one million jobs in India.

Notes:
India has contributed USD 500,000 to the UN Women, the United Nations agency for gender equality and women empowerment for their core budget.
India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations T.S.Tirumurti announced that India reaffirmed its partnership of women-led development and gender parity. UN Women Executive Director, Sima Bahous thanked India for its contribution.

Notes:
The Punjab Mandi Board has started sending ‘digital form J’ to the farmers from this Rabi procurement season
‘J form’ is the sale receipt of a farmer’s agricultural produce in mandis (grain market). These forms were earlier issued manually by the Commission agents. This move aims to bring transparency as well as empowering farmers and make Punjab the first state in the country to provide digitised form J in real time.

Notes:
Directorate General of Foreign Trade, under the aegis of the Ministry of Commerce and Industries is responsible for the Foreign Trade Policy (DGFT) of India.
Recently, the DGFT announced that the existing Foreign Trade Policy 2015-20, which is valid upto March 31, 2022 is extended up to September 30, 2022. After the outbreak of Covid-19, the policy was first extended by a year to the end of March 2020.

Notes:
Punjab National Bank has recently made the Positive Pay System (PPS) compulsory for cheque payments worth Rs 10 lakh and above.
Under the Positive Pay System (PPS) developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a customer issuing the high-value cheque has to reconfirm some essential details before clearing. It aims to protect the customers from security threats

Notes:
The Blue Nile, a subsidiary of the Nile River originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and travels through Ethiopia and Sudan.
A shipwreck on the Blue Nile River happened in Sudan’s Sennar province has killed 23 people, all of them female. The Blue Nile is an important transport route for people and goods in the African nations.

Notes:
In a recent report, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has appreciated the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana.
It highlighted that the program provided insurance to the poor and prevented an increase in the prevalence of extreme poverty in the country. Without any food subsidies, extreme poverty in the pandemic would have increased by 1.05 per cent.

Notes:
The United Nations designated April 5 as the International Day of Conscience. It aims to remind people to self-reflect to improve themselves, their communities, and the world. At the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, the Kingdom of Bahrain sponsored the initiative to designate 5 April as an International Day of Conscience.
The third International Day of Conscience was observed in the year 2022. The Day is led by the campaign of ‘Promoting the Culture of Peace with Love and Conscience’.

Notes:
‘Sarhul Festival’ is the most popular tribal celebration across the state of Jharkhand region. It denotes the beginning of the New Year.
This vibrant festival is celebrated at the beginning of spring every year. This year, it fell on April 4. It is usually celebrated by the tribal communities of the local Sarna religion, especially by the Munda, Ho, and Oraon tribes.